Mosaic Guitar

After posting “June Bug” today, I looked at my last post and noticed that I promised to share the photos of the mosaic guitar now that it is done.  I had posted photos on BeesATC and neglected to post here, so my apologies!

Mosaic Guitar

Mosaic Guitar BACK

If you want to see it in person, it will be in the  32nd Annual YWCA “Women Artists: A Celebration!” show June 21 to July 19, 2014 at the YWCA of Youngstown building located at 25 Rayen Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio.  Tickets are required for the opening night preview party, otherwise the hours are Monday – Saturday, 12 to 4 PM (closed on July 4-5 and all Sundays except July 13th).

The mosaic guitar is priced at $300 because it is my first mosaic guitar and it is not perfect so I would not feel right asking top dollar.   It is grouted and sealed for indoor display.  The back of the neck is painted (not tiled) so it could be hung on the wall with a standard U hook bracket used for hanging guitars.

NOTE:  click on photos if you want to see it bigger.

A treble clef made of copper wire dangles in the sound hole as a tribute to American artist Lily Harmon (1912-1998) because I got hit by a Deja vu when I walked into the Butler Museum of American Art to see her life retrospective show (Trumbull County Branch, 1997?) and saw her guitar assemblage with the strawberry hanging in the sound hole.   I recognized it.  I  knew I had seen that same strawberry dangling inside an old guitar repurposed as art years ago (before 1970?) as it had captured my full attention when I was a child absorbing the colors and textures of art up like a little sponge.   Our guitars may look nothing alike (hers was assemblage art, mine is mosaic, different designs and everything) but my thoughts often turned to her while I was working on this guitar.  I knew that I had to hang a dangle in the sound hole as my way of saying thank you to an artist who influenced future generations.

There are no strings because when some old guitars die, they donate their organs (reusable parts: tuners, nut, bridge, etc.) to cigar box guitar makers so the music can live on.

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Those Guys

Some rockabilly band in Amsterdam stole my online identity.

Well, they didn’t really steal it, they just changed the name of their band to MY internet name sometime between August and December of 2012.

Now I can understand why they changed their name from “Lee and the hillbilly blues combo” to “BARNBEES” as that was quite a mouthful.  Even shortened to “Lee and the HBC” (as on the logo of their old website) is not as catchy or as cool for a band establishing an online presense, growing a fan base, or just plain ol’ being a band. 

I can understand WHY they picked “BARNBEES” as a good name for their band.  They come by it honestly.  Seems the last name of the man named Lee in the Lee and whatever happens to be Barnbee, so it makes perfect sense for Lee Barnbee to call his band BARNBEES.  It is a good name for a band, easy to remember, and googles up easy. 

That’s how I heard about this… I googled myself the other night and found them.

The polite thing for me to do would be to bow out gracefully.  As in quit using it, let them have it.

Afterall, they are a band and I’m just a person… if they hit it big in the music business, achieve global success, people will assume that I am using THEIR name regardless of the fact that I was using barnbees first.

I considered doing that…  then I realized what a pain it would be just trying to remember everywhere I set myself up as barnbees over the years. 

Then what would happen if I did pick a new name, google it out first to make sure no one else is using it before making all these changes and someone else comes along and takes THAT name?  Do it again?

What would you do?

If I do nothing, we will trip over each other. 

Part of me says let them trip, get the “name not available” messages if they want to set up as barnbees anywhere I already am… if they want me to give up barnbees, they can ASK me proper.

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the idea of rockabilly music being popular in the Netherlands.  Barnbees play that blend of country, rock, and blues that’s so American.  They play Johnny Cash.  It seems odd, about as unexpected as a Japanese Polka or an Irish group playing Mariachis.  But, what do I know?

To be fair, they do write some of their own songs.  Oh geez… speaking of which, I wonder if Lee Barnbee would be amused to know that the other “barnbees” on the internet just happens to be a woman twice his size.

Well, not quite anymore. 

I think a distraction is in order. I should get busy, take advantage of low humidity and give that mosaic guitar another coat of cement-less grout.  I love and hate that grout at the same time.  It is nice for big projects as work time is longer, but it takes so long to set up on humid days that it drips out anywhere that is not laid out flat.

I also need to think about what to put in the holes on the headstock once it is done grouted and those straw bits keeping the holes open are pulled out.  The tuners, bridge, and nut were salvaged as parts for making cigar box guitars. 

See? Old music never dies… worthless guitars become art, parts go on to make new musical instruments, and old Cash tunes land in the Netherlands.